In his weasel-worded decision to block a perfectly harmless pipeline that would have provided America with jobs, energy and hope, President Barack Obama betrayed his country, lied and then, just the other day, halfway reversed himself, once more fraudulently.

Not so long ago, this country was in a terrible energy fix. Thanks largely to China and India, world demand for oil was going up while supplies remained limited, meaning prices were soaring as dependence on production in the volatile Middle East grew. However, owing in part to new technology, we found vast new possibilities to obtain oil and gas in the United States, and our neighbors were discovering new resources, too.

Canadian tar sands, it turns out, hold 100 billion barrels of obtainable oil, which is to say, we have Saudi Arabia II sitting right next door. Stretching a pipeline from Canada to Texas refineries is no big deal in a country with 2 million miles of pipeline already. What’s more, there is good besides oil that would flow from it.

It would create thousands of jobs and experts note that a pipeline is far cheaper and safer than other modes of transportation, especially shipping it across the ocean.

The Keystone XL pipeline, in short, would assist in a bonanza of multi-billions, but some environmentalists were unhappy because this tar-sands oil has a lot of carbon dioxide in it, and, by their calculations, would contribute to global warming. There were answers to their concerns. One was that if we don’t use the oil, China will. China then gets all the advantages, and any increased global-warming risk would still be there.

Of course, in a regulatory system that allows no one to sneeze without prior investigations of earthquake dangers, we still had to quadruple-check everything, and so the State Department and 11 other agencies spent three years and endless scientific effort compiling eight volumes of evidence demonstrating there was nothing to worry about.

Obama had promised a decision by the end of last year, but then, on top of screams from environmental extremists, some Nebraskans complained that a physically impossible tainting of aquifer water might occur as the pipeline crossed their state. Obama was in a tough spot — there was an election coming up and whatever decision he made would displease either environmental supporters or union supporters. He punted, saying the State Department was going to study a new path for the pipeline, and that this would take at least a year, by which time the election would be over. Political problem solved?

Not quite, because Republican senators said they would agree to a two-month payroll-tax decrease if Obama would move ahead with the decision, and Obama, eager to come back to another argument on a further 10-month extension of the payroll tax, said that compromise suited him fine. He got it, and we now have a pipeline decision in which he complains he was shoved into an arbitrary deadline for political purposes. That’s a lie. This man, who had once said he bowed to science, had snubbed his nose at science, skipping his original deadline for political purposes.

Because of the overly speedy process of more checking that would not be necessary with old routes, he said we could not be sure the pipeline was safe, another lie. He added we were meanwhile producing more natural gas, increasing our energy supplies without as much carbon-dioxide peril. That’s true, but that still leaves us with major energy deficiencies at present while the emissions reductions mean there’s less to worry about in any emissions increases from the tar-sands oil.

Suddenly, gas prices are up dramatically again, and Obama is in a political pickle. His Chevy Volt and Solyndra solutions are like putting out a forest fire with a squirt gun that doesn’t work. His record on denying drilling hither and yon, and a past, reported statement about not seeing oil as a solution to anything, hardly help the country, especially since he is thus sending oil markets signals to increase prices more. Increased production in our own land has happened despite him instead of because of him.

And now he is going to get out of the mess by promising half a pipeline that will accomplish zip without a northern part Nebraskans along with greenies particularly don’t want? If the American public is dumb enough to buy all that – and I don’t think so – we deserve this guy and the gas prices that come with him.

Jay Ambrose, formerly Washington director of editorial policy for Scripps Howard newspapers, is a columnist living in Colorado.